It Doesn't Work to Sleep on the Week End

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There's a daily build up of toxins in your brain and fatigue in your muscles. No amount of sleeping in on the week end, or taking one walk a week, is not going to recover what happened every single day leading up to that two week vacation. A lot of scientists don't understand the autonomic nervous system. And yet it so rarely ripples into the choices that we make in te day to day basis.

When was the last time you felt truly at peace? Relaxed, physically and emotionally at ease? How can you downregulate your mind and body and reclaim control over everything from your current state of mind to your sleep, risk of illness and even how fast or slow you age? What if you had so much more control over these than you imagined, no matter what seemingly breathless circumstance swirls around you?

Turns out, we do, and it’s all about understanding our nervous system and how to actively bring ourselves into what my guest today, Professor Sara Mednick, calls the downstate. Sara is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine and author of the powerful new book, The Power of the Downstate: Recharge Your Life Using Your Body's Own Restorative Systems. She is passionate about understanding how the brain works through her research into sleep and the autonomic nervous system.

In fact, her seven-bedroom sleep lab works literally around the clock to discover methods for boosting cognition by napping, stimulating the brain with electricity, sound and light, and pharmacology. Her research findings have been published in such leading scientific journals as Nature Neuroscience and The Proceedings from the National Academy of Science, and covered by major media outlets, in no small part because of their importance and practical application in helping us feel better, and live healthier, more vibrant lives.

You can find Sara at: Website | Twitter

If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor about understanding your brain to live a better life.

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